The Green Party has launched its European Parliamentary campaign in Buswells Hotel, Dublin.

Running an all-island ticket, Eamon Ryan, Grace O'Sullivan, Mark Dearey and Ross Brown outlined their reasons for running and their goals for the European Parliament.

One of the key policies which all candidates promoted was the importance of getting Green MEPs elected in order to advance work on the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal is a key policy goal for the European Green Party, which proposes major investment in energy, transport and housing infrastructure in an effort to tackle unemployment and prepare Europe for the environmental challenges ahead.

Speaking after the launch, Green Party leader and former Minister of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, said: "We have put together our best possible team for this campaign. Each candidate brings different qualities to the table, but we all share a common vision that switching to a more sustainable economic development model is the way forward for Ireland.

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"We are part of a European Party with real influence in the European Parliament. We are pro-European, but we are deeply critical about the direction the Union has taken in the last five years. Voting Green is a vote for change. The 'Green New Deal' can stimulate investment in the economy, and create employment by working together to tackle issues like climate change.

"We want to bring the benefits from such a deal to our people at home. The solutions available to us will lead to a fairer, more stable economy. The rules for this new economy will be set in Europe, and we want to be there to help shape them in the right direction.

"In Ireland, we want to set a new economic direction that helps small business. Closing the 'double Irish' tax avoidance scheme is one of the first ways of creating a fairer playing field to make that happen. We also support a financial transaction tax as it would be one of the best ways of moving on from the boom-and-bust economic model that got us into such trouble. Finally we believe the development of our natural resources can be one of the best ways of developing employment here but we want that to be centred around community rather than Corporate ownership."

(CD/MH)